It has been over 160 years since a commercial quantity of ‘rock oil’ was found. Through much of that time, uses for its refined liquids gradually expanded, from lighting to fuel oil to gasoline and the automobile. Gradually petroleum became the energy source of choice, though coal and natural gas were large competitors. During World… Continue reading The Global Implications of Oil Price Renormalization (Part 3)
Category: Public Administration
Democratizing Education
Lawrence Cremin notes that humans receive knowledge about their environment, the world about them, in five main ways. First is through the home, as babies turn into children and then into youths. Until recently, this was probably the sole method of education for most humans. They learned informally from relatives, friends, and others nearby. A… Continue reading Democratizing Education
Aging and Economies
It’s really pretty simple. In order for a society to reproduce itself, each woman must have 2.1 children during her fertile period, which normally lasts from, say 14-42 years of age, more or less. This is called a fertility rate, as opposed to a birthrate. A stable population fertility rate is reached by counting one… Continue reading Aging and Economies
Just Bubbling Along
In essence, the bubble problem is tied to borrowing, that is, to put it [more or less] in the words of a character in the movie Popeye, "If you lend me money for a hamburger today, I’ll pay you back on Monday". Presumably, there would be an extra charge for taking the risk, called interest.… Continue reading Just Bubbling Along
‘I Stole It Fair and Square’
I have sometimes used this quip in the above title to describe what went on in much of the American land policy with respect to Native Americans. An awful lot of land was acquired from various ‘chiefs’ who were deemed by the American authorities to have had the legal right to sell property presumably owned… Continue reading ‘I Stole It Fair and Square’
Havana Dreamin’
I wrote this 6 years ago, before President Trump more or less established the Status Quo Ante in US Cuba relations. This is a lightly revised piece from then. I knew Cuba in the old days before President Obama unleashed the second American invasion of that Caribbean island. This one was not a military one,… Continue reading Havana Dreamin’
A Story for Labour Day
In these days of ‘gig’ employment and lots of home delivery options, we may forget why there is a day dedicated to those who work for a living—that is, most of us. In the late 1800s, there was a lot of labour unrest, in part because of long hours, over-controlling bosses, low pay and dangerous… Continue reading A Story for Labour Day
The Day I Brought Down the Canadian Government
In the late 1970s I had been two years active as the head of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, ( APEC) an independent think-tank focused on the economic development of the four easternmost Provinces in the country, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. We had published a guidebook to the… Continue reading The Day I Brought Down the Canadian Government
A Big Renaissance
I want to talk about a book I just read, but first some reminiscing is in order. Fifty-seven years ago, in January 1964, I showed up at the Center for Research on Economic Development (CRED) at the University of Michigan. I had had a fairly mediocre academic record for two years as an undergraduate engineering… Continue reading A Big Renaissance
Old Professor by the Sea 